DVC Boutique Resorts – A Resort for Every Vacation Type

Vacation your way! Could we see DVC boutique resorts popping up around the United States? It’s the magical question we’ve asked ourselves for many years. You know us, we’re always ready for a trip “home” to celebrate our favorite mouse’s birthday. Equally, we love exploring the world and experiencing far off places like Italy and Alaska. Stepping outside the Disney bubble we always find ourselves missing the Disney difference. Looks like our dreams could be coming true with the rumor of DVC boutique resorts. The rumor must be explored!

Disney’s Old Key West

DVC Original Concept

Grab a seat for today’s history lesson. Take good notes, you never know when a quiz may pop up! In 1992 Walt Disney World launched the Disney Vacation Club with the opening of the Old Key West Resort. The original plan outlined resorts starting at Walt Disney World with the idea of expanding the Disney difference to vacation locations around the United States. DVC boutique resort location ideas included a New England ski resort, NYC, Yellow Stone, Hawaii, and a variety of beach locations.

Fast-forward to today and the expansion of the Disney Vacation Club began with the additions of the DVC resorts at Hilton Island and Vero Beach. After mixed results and other economic impacts, Disney paused the further expansion of the DVC resorts until the addition of the DVC Aulani Resort in Hawaii on August 29, 2011.

Good! Timing is the key to any good idea. Disney World loves its surveys and we love filling them out. Disney surveys give us a glimpse into potential directions for new attractions, park updates, potential resorts, and beyond. Recently Disney Vacation Club surveyed a variety of members around the idea of vacations outside of the parks. The surveyed asked questions around how likely a member would be to vacation at different locations outside the parks if the area had DVC related resort.

Locations included a multitude of places that included
different port locations of Disney Cruise Line, like the Bahamas and Maui. What
got the DVC Duo excited were questions around the original standalone locations
that included a ski resort in New Hampshire, and a lodge in Wyoming.

Passholder Insights: If you’re looking at spending a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom, check out Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort as it’s within walking distance to the park.

Disney’s Mineral King Resort – Concept Art

What Could We See?

Dusting off the DVC boutique resort idea we’re hearing rumors Disney is taking a new approach. With current DVC resort outside of the parks, Walt Disney built each of them from scratch and on a larger in scale. According to Jim Hill of Jim Hill Media (and fellow DVC member), Disney is looking at taking a different approach with the DVC boutique resorts. Where possible Disney would look to purchase already existing resorts and look to put the Disney touch on them.

The main reason for the change in approach is related to the environmental impact. One of the big reasons the original plans for expansion was shelved was due to environmental regulations around adding new resorts to certain areas, like Truckee, California. By purchasing an existing resort Disney would not have to deal with the regulation around building a new resort.

Passholder Insights: Projected resort sizes for the DVC boutique resort are closer to the Star Wars Resort than the standard Disney Resort.

Our Thoughts

Can we make reservations now? For us, traveling the world with Disney DVC boutique resorts would be a dream could true. We can already see ourselves checking into any of the resort ideas. We believe it could become a reality this time, especially if Disney moves towards smaller resorts. We’ll cross our fingers that we hear something in the Disney Park and Resorts session at this year’s D23 Expo at the end of August. Pop quiz time! Which DVC boutique resort would you stay at first?